The World Through My Eyes: I Love Your Sushi Roll, Hotter Than Wasabi :)

Food….yummy!!!! I love everything about it, how it is made, how it smells but even more how it tastes! I was very excited to find out we “had” to try new foods for our culture blog! I was excited because trying new foods is actually a passion of mine. I have tried many different kinds of foods but the one I have never had a chance to try was sushi. I had wanted to go for a long time so this was the perfect opportunity to venture outside of my comfort zone again and explore a new culture with my taste buds!

At the beginning of the semester, I had tried hard to get a group of our classmates to go together to a sushi bar, but because college students are not known for having a lot of free time, it was nearly impossible to get our schedules together. However, I decided to go anyways, and took a friend with me who knew about sushi.

We went to Sakoa Japan Grill. When we first walked in I noticed there were regular tables and chairs where most people were sitting at, and then they had a room with a traditional table very close to the ground and cushions as seats. Strong Japanese details adorned the restaurant and it was obvious they were proud of their heritage and culture. However, for this exact reason, I was completely thrown for a loop when I started paying attention to the music that was playing in the background. The reason it caught my attention is that the hosts of the radio show were French! Not only were they speaking French, but also the music they were playing was American Jazz music. Talk about cultural infusion!

I wanted to try fish that I had never had before so after studying the menu carefully we ordered five different rolls and sashimi. The sashimi was salmon, tuna, yellow tail, and white fish. Sashimi is eaten raw, just the pure piece of raw fish. It actually did not have much taste to it. I did not really like it though because I love my food full of flavor.

The rolls that we ordered were Jimmy Walker, Matupitu, Thai Octopus, UAB Roll, and the Volcano. It amazed me how spicy almost every sushi roll was, but they were still delicious!!!! My favorite on was the Volcano which I thought, by its name, that it would be the spiciest one but it was the least spicy and my favorite. The UAB Roll was my second favorite. It had crab, crawfish, and cream cheesed stuffed inside with eel on the top!! That was my first time having eel, and it was a little spicy. The Matupitu was good but so weird! It consisted of spicy tuna & avocado inside, white fish on top with siracha, mayo, honey, nacho cheese, masago, & eel sauce! You would think these flavors would totally clash but it actually turned out pretty good. You just had to eat it without really thinking about everything in it J The last two were my least favorite, mainly because of their levelness of spiciness. The Jimmy Walker had beaded wasabi on the top of it and I did not know that until after my mouth was already on fire! However, the Thai Octopus was even worse! WOW!!! Talk about spicy!! It was the smallest of the rolls but it literally made my eyes water and I started sweating! I could only eat one of those and I drank about three glasses of water trying to cool my mouth. Overall, I loved sushi! I cannot wait to go again, and this time I have a better idea about what to expect!

The Sushi Chef.